ADMISSIONS ARE OPEN FOR AUDIO ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION.COURSE COMMENCES IN APRIL 30, 2018. TO REGISTER, CALL - 9003032786 FRESH ADMISSIONS FOR 2018-19 FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAMME SCHEDULED TO COMMENCE ON 1ST WEEK OF JULY ARE ON. SEATS ARE RESERVED ON FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS.

Eric Foerster studied at the Karlsruhe State University of Music and then at the Bern Academy of Arts.
He began performing in parallel with his studies and worked as a bass baritone throughout Europe.
For more than 10 years he has performed regularly as a bass-baritone at the Biel Solothurn Opera TOBS, appearing in both operas and dramatic productions.
In addition Eric is an accomplished Oratorio and Lied performer and during the same period has been invited to sing in concert halls throughout Europe.
He’s president of the Swiss Society of Musical Education for the Biel/Jura area of Switzerland for almost 10 years.
He has undertaken specialist research and has published studies on the composition techniques of the “Art Brut“ composer Adolf Wölfli. His publications in this field have been translated into English, French and Czech, and his research has been presented in special exhibitions at several international Museums, such as LaM – Lille Métropole, musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, France, the Stone Bell House, Prague (Prague City Gallery), Czech Republic and the Kunstmuseum Bern and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.

Matteo Fraboni graduated in jazz composition and arrangement from the conservatory G.B Martini in Bologna. Having started studying at a young age in piano he progressed onto drums and became very interested in Jazz. He has attended courses at Berklee College of Music in Perugia (2002) and Città di Castello (2003). He has a keen interest in ethnomusicology both practically and theoretically having developed skills in: Cuban music with Josè Luis Quintana Fentès ‘Changuito’; Indian music with Aky Montoya; and African polyrhythms with griot Mamdou Diouf.
As a performer he has worked with many international artists among including: Auan Ortiz, Fabio Zeppetella, Dario Deidda, Franco D’Andrea, Reverend Lee Brown, Bruno Tommaso, Tino Tracanna, Toni Maiello, Maurits Roes, Raphael Gualazzi, Stadio, Francesco di Giacomo, Badara Seck, Mauro Pagani, Marco Poeta, Paola Turci, PFM, Simone Zanchini, Massimo Morganti, Giovanni Meier, Stefano Battaglia, George Garzone, Riccardo Del Fra and many others playing in the main national and international Festivals. He has also released his first CD: Matteo Fraboni Quintet This is My Music recorded in New York.
As a teacher and pedagogue, he has authored a guide to Modern Drum Techniques and has experience working as a private teacher, also as a consultant for artistic production at the G. B. Martini Music Academy in Bologna in 2009-10. He has been awarded the March Region Young Knighthood by the Young Industrialists the Ancona Province (2011).
At KM Matteo is responsible for teaching contemporary music history, jazz composition and arranging and of course percussion tuition.

Gabriel was born and raised in Brighton, UK where he began playing piano at an early age, rising to prominence with success in a number of local piano competitions. In 2011, he graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London with a first class honours degree in classical piano performance, receiving both the John Halford Prize for Contemporary Piano Performance and the Cyril Cork Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. In 2014, with the support of a full scholarship from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, he was awarded a distinction for his masters in advanced musicology at King’s College London. He was also the recipient of the Adams Prize in Postgraduate Music for his thesis on the piano music of Karlheinz Stockhausen

In 2013, Gabriel began working as a visiting lecturer in piano repertoire at Trinity Laban, in addition to his regular teaching and performing commitments in London and around the UK. Performance highlights have included a three year residency at the Brighton Fringe Festival and a concert tour of France and Switzerland performing the Grieg Piano Concerto and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Brighton Youth Orchestra.

Having first visited India as a teacher in the summer of 2011, giving lectures, masterclasses and performances in New Delhi, Gabriel returned to take on full-time employment at KM Conservatory in 2016. He currently teaches classical piano to KM’s foundation and diploma students, as well as managing keyboard skills classes and lecturing on 20th century music history

International artist and Top Prize winner at the Texas National Music Festival’s “Classical Minds” competition, guitarist Matt Bacon is a highly sought after performer, song writer, recording artist, and teacher now on faculty at KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India. At KMMC, Matt serves as Guitar Faculty and also teaches Foundation Musicianship. Always a busy performer, In December 2015, Matt was chosen as a Featured Artist for the India Guitar Federation’s annual festival and toured Delhi and Calcutta giving concerts & masterclasses. Matt also has the honor of being the first Western musician to perform Carnatic music on classical guitar under the wing of famed music director Ramesh Vinayakam.

Recently, Matt has performed across the United States at venues such as Barshinger Hall at Franklin & Marshall College, the John Marlow Guitar Series in Washington D.C., a sold-out appearance at the historic Fayetteville Theatre in West Virginia, and has had his performances featured on WITF Radio Harrisburg, the San Francisco News, the American Film Society, the 2016 Rio Olympics, and has recorded on AR Rahman’s film “24.”

From 2009-2012, Matt attended several internationally acclaimed music festivals including New England Conservatory’s Boston GuitarFest and the Texas National Music Festival. In Texas, Matt has been awarded Top Prizes in the guitar competition two years in a row and was also a prizewinner in the first Lancaster International Guitar Competition in Pennsylvania. Through participation and success at these festivals, Matt earned the opportunity to perform in master classes for luminary artists including Eliot Fisk of NEC, Sharon Isbin of the Julliard School, and Marco Tamayo of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Matt had the honor to study at two of the most prestigious schools for western classical music and received his Masters from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2014 and his BA from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in 2010. At both schools Matt earned Dean’s List for Academic Achievement, merit scholarships, was awarded Career Development Grants, featured in the Distinguished Alumni publication, and also served as the Senior Resident Advisor for Stanford University’s Precollege music program. As a teacher at KM, Matt’s students have won prizes in guitar competitions, had their compositions featured on programs from Chennai to Mumbai, and gave exciting performances for the annual KM Day Concert.

Natalya Nosova, lyrical-coloratura soprano, born in Moscow, started studying Piano and Vocal and Guitar at the age of 6 at Moscow State Music School. She holds Masters Degree from Moscow City University and Bachelor’s Degree from Moscow College of Arts in Voice, Piano and Conducting.

Natalya started performing at a very young age. She worked as an artist-vocalist in a “Voice” Theater and music ensembles. At the same time she was teacher in voice, piano and theory at a Vocal Academy in Moscow. As a performer Natalya traveled in a several European Countries as Germany, Niederlande, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece.

She truly believes that music can discover the best sides of the character of a person.

At KMMC Natalya joined at 2016. She teachers Western Classical Voice and conducting sight singing and Master classes in the Foundation, Certificate in Vocal Performance and Diploma programmes.

Having started learning the violin from a very early age, Anupam completed the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, in Violin Performance, and went on to study for a BA in Music from The Queen’s College, University of Oxford. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Previous accomplishments include being one of only three Indian participants at the first ever US State Department sponsored exchange programme in music with a residency in Boston, followed by a performance at the UNESCO, Paris. Anupam has also had the privilege of playing on three separate occasions under the direction of legendary Western Music conductor Sir Neville Marriner in London. At KM, Anupam currently lectures on courses in Music History, Theory and the Violin, and also teaches and conducts the Sunshine Orchestra, a talented bunch of young string players, in western music.

Deepak joined KMMC’s Music Technology faculty in 2013. Originally from Kerala, he completed his education in Chennai, where he was awarded a Diploma in Audio Engineering from the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) and a further certificate in Audio Engineering from SAE in Byron Bay, Australia. He went on to study on the T3 (Train the Trainers) programme conducted by Apple Inc. in Chennai and qualified as an official Apple Certified Pro and Apple Certified Trainer for Logic Pro 9 Software.

After completing his studies he gained experience working at the Surang Studio in Chennai as a professional Sound Engineer, and back at SAE as a Trainer. He spent more than three years working as an Apple Trainer and Audio Engineering teacher at Audio Media Education Pvt. Ltd., and in December 2012 he was invited to Anna University to give a guest lecture on Music Technology.

Deepak has worked on a wide range of audio engineering projects, including the Bangalore Metro signature tune, Namma Metro. His most recent projects include working as a music producer and mixing engineer for independent artist, Chinmayi Tripathi, for her solo album, Mann Bawara, and as mixing and mastering engineer for a promotional song for the Hollywood movie, Smurfs 2, composed by Hip-Hop Tamizha. He has also produced a number of advertising jingles and arranged, mixed and mastered songs by a range of independent artists.

Not one to be confined to the mixing desk, Deepak has performed as a session guitarist and singer for the independent band, Paadhai, for their 2010 album Neon Nagaram and their 2013 follow-ups, Appatakkar and Ranam Sugam 2, published on the Sony Record Label. He also applied his mixing magic to the album Hip-Hop Tamizha, which won Internet Sensation of the Year at the Vijay TV Awards in 2013.

At KMMC, Deepak teaches on the Foundation and Diploma programmes and helps to run our part-time programmes in Audio Engineering, which are offered on a six-month or one-year basis.

Lijo. K. Jose, Voice Trainer , joined KMMC as a Western Classical Music faculty in 2015. He has completed his Foundation & Diploma Certificates with Distinction in Hindustani and Western Classical Performance from KM Music Conservatory/ Middlesex University and Specialist in Vocal Performance course from KM Music Conservatory. He has been trained in Hindustani Voice under Dr. Shruti Jauhari and Western Classical Voice under Ms. Namrata Shah & Dr. Gilles Denizot. During this time, he has been a two-time winner of the A.R. Rahman Foundation Scholarship. He has been a soloist for KMMC’s annual Opera Scenes events for three consecutive years and has performed in events like Fête de la Musique ’15 & 10th International Film Festival of Chennai ’13 as soloist and performed along with the Foundation and Chamber Choirs for many events such as Queens Birthday at British High Commission ’14.

Lijo has composed the ‘Bay Leaf’ ringtone for Nokia/Microsoft Lumia, after winning the ‘Sounds of The World’ Project. He has composed music for Ads, music videos like, ‘Acceptance’ which was an official selection for Screen Dance Film Festival, Spain and a few short movies/documentaries in collaboration with LV Prasad Film & Television Academy, such as: ‘This Is The Moment’, which was selected in the ‘Focus’ Category for the International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala and the Pondicherry Short Film Festival & Mumbai International Film Festival.

Lijo’s work as a singer and keyboardist, both before and during his pre-degree course at Calicut University, afforded him prestigious opportunities such as participating in the Republic Day Parade in Delhi in 2001, and in other cultural events as part of the National Integration Programme where he represented the National Cadets Corps. While pursuing his degree in Homoeopathic Medicine from Kerala University, he participated in several music competitions and conducted a musical ensemble which represented the college at Homoeo Fest ’08, where he also won the Best Western Classical Singer Award.

Lijo was the lead vocalist for a multi genre band ‘Aver’ based in Chennai and recorded an International Album named ‘Indie100 International’ in 2016. His continuing work involves teaching at KMMC, singing for various composers, independent projects and doing keyboard programming and composing for upcoming Films and Jingles in the industry.

Originally from St Andrew’s in Scotland, Dr Adam Greig completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Lancaster University in England, where he received a BA (Hons) in Music and a Masters degree in Music with Distinction, and went on to complete a doctoral thesis on the music of French composer, Germaine Tailleferre.

As an active performer and musicologist Adam’s research involves combining different modes of analytical enquiry with experience from practice, to better understand interpretation and artistic transmission. In solo piano performance he holds the prestigious Licentiate from the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in London. He specialises in performing early 20th Century French repertoire, particularly that which surrounds the ‘Les Six’ composers, and has performed as a soloist and accompanist at a number of international conferences, including the Royal Music Association Symposium Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth-Century French Music. He has also had the privilege of performing two piano concertos with the Lancaster University Symphony Orchestra – Francis Poulenc’s Piano Concerto No.1, and Germaine Tailleferre’s Concerto pour piano et 12 instruments.

Adam’s secondary area of performance is contemporary electro-acoustic music and he has performed both existing repertoire and premieres in this genre at the International Computer Music Conference in Belfast and the LICA-Mantis Festival in Lancaster.

As a researcher, Adam has given papers at Cambridge University, King’s College London and the International Conference of Music Since the 1900s, held in Keele. His published work includes contributions as a Research Assistant to Professor Deborah Mawer’s articles in the Journal of the Royal Music Association and the Journal of Twentieth-Century Music, and typeset musical examples for her book, Ravel Studies, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. At KMMC Adam is the Academic Coordinator with oversight over all Music Programmes and curriculum. He is also the institutional link tutor for the Middlesex University partnership and teaches piano, analysis and musicological subjects on the Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Rajesh Dhavale was trained in the art of tabla playing by his grandfather, Veerana Kamkar of Mehboob Khan Sahib Gharana, the recipient of the much coveted Sangeet Ratna Award from the State Government of Karnataka.

At the age of 13, Rajesh was himself awarded a CCRT National Scholarship to further his training in classical percussion and he went on to study under Ustad Hidaayat Khan Sahib from Jahangir Khan Sahib Gharana and to receive the ‘Vidvat’ in Tabla from the Government of Karnataka.

Rajesh has accompanied many renowned artistes on the tabla, including Smt. Lakshmi Shankar on vocals; the late Shri Vishveshwaran on the santoor, Shri Janardhan on the sitar, Sri M.S Gopalakrishnan on the violin and Sri T.V Gopala Krishnan on vocals. He is also a Bhigh grade artiste at All India Radio.

Recently, Rajesh presented a programme of music at the Hamsadhwani, which he had conceived and directed himself. It was called ‘Tal Bol and Laya’ and featured a solo performance and a jugalbandi with shehnai and sitar. His website can be found at www.dhavaletabla.in.

Over the last 15 years, Rajesh has trained many students in tabla. At KMMC, he teaches Hindustani percussion to students on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

As a young man, Munna Shaokath Ali studied Hindustani classical music under the Gurukul tradition and was trained by Mohammed Abdul Baki for over 15 years in the Agra Gharana Gayaki, of Faiyyaz Khan fame. At the tender age of seven, Munnaji started to give performances and came to be affectionately known as the ‘Munna Qawwal’. He chose to specialise in the genre of Qawwali, which was perfected by Shankar Shamboo, the celebrated Sama Qawwals at Hazrat Moinnuddeen Chishti, Ajmer. While he had rigorous training in this medium, he also had extensive lessons in Urdu and Arabic. This stood him in good stead and he emerged as poet and a lyricist of note, having written the soul-stirring Piya Haji Ali for the Bollywood Film, Fiza; and Zikr Ahle talab A Jao Zikr Mein for The Forgotton Hero by Subhash Chandra Bose, both under the direction of A. R. Rahman.

Munnaji went on to establish the Bharat Qawwali Sangam in Bangalore and trained many students in Indian classical music. During this time, he gave over 2,000 sama performances at the various dargaahs all over India. He also performed at the palace of Nawab Safdarjung in Hyderabad, for the Mysore Maharaja, and in the presence of Indira Gandhi at Nagpur.

Today, Munnaji is President and a founding member of Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy, a non-profit trust that promotes Hindustani classical music in the South of India.

A regular artiste with All India Radio Bangalore, he has recorded more than 100 devotional cassettes and trained some of the best known play-back singers. His repertoire includes extensive raga delineations in the traditional Dhrut pieces and the light classical modes like the Ghazal.

At KMMC, Munnaji teaches Harmonium on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma courses.

Anantha R. Krishnan started his musical journey at an early age on the mridangam, the principle drum of Carnatic music. As a child he astounded the Indian classical community with his performances and was hailed a progidy. Since then, he has gone on to cement his position as one of the top mridangam players of his generation.

Anantha is the grandson and disciple of arguably the greatest mridangam maestro of all time, Shri Palghat R. Raghu. He started learning the mridangam under his uncle, Shri R. Ramkumar, as a toddler and began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five. Anantha performed his first concert at the age of seven and during this period he received many awards from traditional organisations of Carnatic music across India. Most notably, he won the Best Mridangist Prize from the Music Academy in Chennai a record five times in six years!

As a young adult Anantha moved to the USA and in both 1997 and 1998 he was awarded the State of the Arts
Award from the New Jersey government, as part of the National Endowment of the Arts effort for promoting
greater cultural awareness in America.In 1999, he was invited to perform for the Millennium celebrations in Berlin, Germany, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and again at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. A year later, he performed at the historic Sadler’s Wells Music Festival in London for the UK Prime Minister. More recently, Anantha returned to Germany at the invitation of Fred Frith, the British experimental guitarist, to perform for the seminal New Jazz Meeting for SWR 2, a national radio station based in Baden Baden.

In May 2008, Anantha was a featured soloist in the Grammy nominated ‘Miles from India’ tour, which premiered
in Town Hall of New York City and presented the music of the great Miles Davis with Indian instrumentation,
featuring jazz legends such as Ron Carter, Dave Liebman Lenny White, Ndugu Chancler, and Pete Cosey. In July 2011, he also performed in a Carte Blanche Artist Series of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, to a
crowd of 64,000.

Anantha holds a BA in Western Music and Philosophy from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Electronic Music and Percussion from Mills College, California. Whilst at university he studied Western percussion under William Winant. Specialising in contemporary 20th Century percussion, he is perhaps the only percussionist of Indian heritage to have performed the music of American composers, Steve Reich, John Cage, James Tenney, Jon Appleton and Charles Dodge, among many others. He has also been a special interest student of tabla under Ustad Zakir Hussain for the past six years and has recorded for Intakt Records, Echo Music and ACT Records.

At KMMC, Anantha teaches Western and Indian percussion to students on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Dr James Bunch is an American composer, conductor and educator who completed his doctorate in music composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has written works for voice, instrumental ensembles, and electronics. His music has received performances throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. Dr Bunch joined the KM Music Conservatory faculty in 2014.

Lyric mezzo-soprano, Cynthia L. Smith recently completed a Doctorate in vocal performance with a secondary focus in music history and musicology from Ball State University. A native of Tennessee in the United States, she holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in voice from Western Carolina University and Tennessee Technological University, respectively. In addition to her university coursework, Cynthia studied in voice, Viennese music history, and German in Vienna, Austria in the summer of 2011.

Cynthia is a performer and researcher of music related to the Holocaust. As part of her research, she was awarded with a Fulbright US Student Award for the 2013-14 academic year, where she studied the Theresienstadt compositions of Viktor Ullmann in Basel, Switzerland. Cynthia has presented lectures on Ullmann’s compositions at Ball State University; the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland; and the University of Basel, also in Switzerland.

As an active recitalist, Cynthia has performed in the United States, Austria, and Switzerland. She has appeared in opera productions as Dido in Dido and Æneas, The Third Knitter in Barab’s A Game of Chance, and Donna Ribalda in P.D.Q Bach’s The Stoned Guest at Ball State University. She portrayed Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, and performed in productions of L’Elisir d’Amore, The Merry Widow, and Roméo et Juliette with Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville, North Carolina, US.

At KMMC, Cynthia teaches Western classical voice and lectures in the Foundation, Certificate in Vocal Performance, and Diploma programmes.